1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus and, more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus which is connected to the ISDN having a plurality of information channels.
2. Related Background Art
In the case of transmitting and receiving an original between facsimile apparatuses, there are many cases where the user wants to communicate by voice, for instance, in order to discuss an important matter or the like regarding the original or the like.
Hitherto, in such a case, the following method is used. That is, if a telephone is attached to the apparatus, the user on the transmission side previously makes a reservation using the telephone upon facsimile communication, and after completion of the communication, the apparatus is switched to the telephone on the basis of the reservation. Therefore, the transmission side and the reception side can communicate and the user now executes a desired speech communication.
On the other hand, in the facsimile apparatus having no telephone, the user executes a speech communication by separately using another telephone.
However, in such conventional apparatuses, there are the following difficulties and, particularly, a large problem occurs when considering the case of the reception in the confidential communication (personal communication) mode.
That is, in conventional methods, a telephone must be used. Moreover, since a speech communication is executed by using the telephone, at the time of a confidential output of a facsimile image which was confidentially received, in order to also obtain a voice message from the partner, the voice message cannot be obtained upon confidential document output if the apparatus on the reception side is not set to the telephone of the reception side user and, further, any special response is not made for that purpose.
That is, in the case of the confidential reception or the like in which data is once stored in a memory and, thereafter, the data is output by an instruction of the operator, a voice message must be recorded on a tape.
For instance, in the case of the facsimile apparatus to which a telephone is attached, the apparatus is requested such that the telephone has not only a simple communicating function but also another mechanism such as an automatic answering and recording telephone set. Moreover, the voice from the partner user must be recorded to, e.g., a tape in a form as mentioned above separately and independently from the facsimile image information and the voice must be stored as a voice message or the like.
According to a method whereby such an automatic answering and recording telephone set mechanism is provided for the facsimile apparatus in order to obtain a voice message upon confidential output, there are drawbacks such that the costs of the apparatus having the above mechanism increase, its control also becomes complicated, and the like. Therefore, in the conventional apparatus, it is difficult to almost simultaneously obtain the voice message upon confidential output.
An apparatus which can communicate both image and voice data during one communication has been proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 403,842, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,048. Further, apparatuses which are connected to the ISDN and can communicate both of an image and voice data have been proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 258,768, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,073, 436,254, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,427 and 543,416, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,520. However, according to the above apparatuses, both image and voice data cannot be simultaneously communicated or output.